NEXAS: The Kick Sweatshop for Vtubers!

[The Proctor]

What is “Virtual Talent Academia” ?

I’m Harry, the founder of NEXAS! Thank you for your interest in NEXAS’s first audition. Being our first audition, I was nervous

nexas.live

Archive

NEXAS is a very weird agency that has just popped up. The quick facts;

1) They want to create an entirely new vtuber platform to compete with Twitch/Youtube/Etc. Their partner in this endeavor is AniLive (a), a startup launching a "mobile streaming app [...] designed specifically for the anime and VTuber community".
2) They intend to launch 40 talents.
3) They are partnered in some fashion with both Filian and Punkalopi.
4) They expect every one of their vtubers to stream 2 hours a day, every single day.
5) Their website reads as severely ESL with strange sentences and non-sequiturs everywhere.

Normally I wouldn't care, but point #3 lends this enough clout that I'm ready to make a thread on it as a precaution.

---

Leadership & Connections:

Spoiler: NEXAS CEO, Harry

NEXAS CEO: Hiromitsu So / 荘博光 / Harry
From the NEXAS website:

Born to a Japanese and Taiwanese family in 1995 and raised in Japan. Graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in Economics. Began a career at 17LIVE, one of Asia’s largest live-streaming platforms, playing a pivotal role in leading the Global CEO Office. Post-independence, developed a community app and a web game, and provided marketing support to multiple companies, culminating in the founding of FORCREATORS PTE. LTD.

LinkedIn (requires login)



The parent company of NEXAS, FORCREATORS PTE. LTD., was incorporated in Singapore on 17 October 2023. On 14 December 2023 they announced the completion of their "angel round funding" claiming that they raised funds from nine investors and that these included early investors into Anycolor and Cover (post).

This claim may actually be true, as Harry has a surprising (i.e. non-zero) number of personal or professional connections to historic Japanese corpos:

• His Twitter account is followed by Yagoo (post)
• Captain, the current CEO of AniLive (NEXAS' partner streaming platform) was the CEO of PRISM Project prior to its acquisition (and dissolution) by Sony
• The NEXAS website namedrops IRIAM and REALITY, two failed JP Vtuber streaming apps. Some IRIAM refugees have since found success as artists, riggers or Vtubers for other corpos (post). IRIAM itself was owned by ZIZAI, which used to manage Mirai Akari (post).
• He previously worked for IZUMO and talked about Ailis, their AI Vtuber project (post). IZUMO in turn currently manages AniLive (archive).

Harry also had Opinions about the collapse of WACTOR and NijiEN drama earlier this year, which he tweeted in Japanese, even linking a Depressed Nousagi video about WACTOR (post).

On the EN side, NEXAS invited Filian and Punkalopi to give a "special guest lecture" over Discord to selected audiences, in the run-up to launch. Punkalopi's lecture was on 1 March and Filian's lecture was on 9 March (post).

Spoiler: AniLive CEO, Captain

AniLive / IZUMO / AnotherBall CEO: Shunsuke Oyu / Captain
LinkedIn (requires login)


AniLive is under IZUMO, which is a project of the venture company ANOTHERBALL PTE. LTD. which was also incorporated in Singapore, on 5 June 2022. (archive)

Red Flags:

• Despite all of Harry's connections above, the "history of Vtubing" shown on the NEXAS website has glaring surface-level errors, e.g. presenting "Gawl Gura" as a star Vtuber who pre-dated agencies like Hololive (post)
• Use of My Hero Academia imagery to pitch their brand
• Aiming to launch with 40 talents who are expected to stream 2 hours each day every single day, with nebulous support or worse (see below)
• Intra-company rivalry is a feature, not a circumstance to mitigate (post)
  

  Similarly, in NEXAS, we actively support those who demonstrate a high level of engagement and ambition. If you want to call it as “favoritism”, it might be true in a sense. But please understand that we will do it more systematically.

• Corpo Vtubers are not restricted from applying but must be ready to immediately break off their contract with that corpo if accepted (post)
• "Vtuber alt-streaming platform" is not new, by their own admission (their references to IRIAM and REALITY), but Surely This Time Will Be Different
  • Talent debuts are exclusive to the AniLive app's closed alpha, severely limiting exposure (archive of relevant thread page)

Notable Events:

• 2024-03-29: The first wave is announced. The Twitter post tags 14 talents, down from "over 20" joining the first wave as claimed on the website. A picture of 27 (sic) slimes is included to show the "soul forms" of said talents, whose models will be revealed one by one in order, starting 2024-03-31. One of the slimes has the Yaranaika face (post).
• 2024-03-31: Reveals start.
• 2024-04-12: Eight more accounts are tagged. They are still advertised as the first wave, bringing the total up to 22.
• 2024-04-20: Revealed talent count hits at least 25. AniLive also announces their upcoming closed alpha test, which is where "pre-selected" streamers will debut. One of the talents, Pyon Phelix, has stated that "phase 1" of his debut is exclusive to AniLive's alpha (archive of relevant thread page).
• 2024-04-25: A debut timetable is posted showing 27 talents who will debut over the next three days (post), leading to controversy:
  • Criticism arises about the number of talents NEXAS is launching and the AniLive app.
  • Instead of properly addressing or simply ignoring said criticism, Harry uses his official Twitter to tweet clapbacks with passive-aggressive s (post).
  • Harry later replies to his critics with clearly AI-written form apologies (post).
  • As mentioned previously, debuts are exclusive to AniLive's alpha, which is itself iOS-exclusive (post).
  • This is despite Captain raising USD$14.8 M in funding in 2023 through his venture company AnotherBall (post).
  • Talent LuluLasso volunteers herself to make highlight reels of everyone's debuts for non-iOS users, and also volunteers to prepare VODs for each talent to post later themselves (post).
  • Reddit and Twitter posts appear from people claiming to have passed at least one round of auditions before washing/dropping out, summarising the red flags they saw (post 1) (post 2).
  • LexParteVT (Josuiji Shinri of Holostars) quote-retweets the debut schedule: "bruh..." (post)
  • ChamyVT claims that NEXAS approached her, asking to make merch of her for their OffKai booth without compensation other than ~exposure~ (post).
• 2024-04-26: Debuts start. Liveposting starts here. An opinionated summary of the debuts is here.
  • Evanit0 tries to defend NEXAS - as he met Harry in Japan in February and it's possible that Harry paid for the trip (post 1) (post 2).
  • At least one person, neyume_neko, restreams the debuts on Twitch (post).

The AniLive App:

• The closed alpha of the app, which was iOS-exclusive, was the only official way to view the NEXAS 1st Wave debuts, though there were unofficial restreams.
• NEXAS talents were leased an iPhone 12 for streaming (post).
• The app used for viewing is the same app used for streaming, though as expected, viewers cannot stream (post).
• The on-screen chat is known to disappear in alpha (post).
• Captain claims that there is no Android version yet because "Android has many models and face tracking is unstable, it will take some time" (post). But why would face tracking matter to viewers? A plausible theory is that the AniLive app is only streaming model movement data instead of video, which is much less costly but requires the client to interpret the movement data, and limits the types of content that can be streamed via AniLive (post). Another possibility, not mutually exclusive, is that AniLive simply did not prioritise Android viewer functionality over Android streaming functionality.
• A purported dump of the app is here. Download at your own risk.

 

[MerelyTourist]

Who? Why?
Do these people even have ANY qualifications to mentor others in this industry?

Who the fuck is this another Harry? Smells chink. Well, PteLtd indicate Singapore.

And WUT? 2nd wave? Excuse you? Where's the first one?

 

[Bronze]

Who? Why?
Do these people even have ANY qualifications to mentor others in this industry?

Not sure but I saw them having Filian as guest.


They are auditioning for 2nd wave rn

 

[NeneHATE]

Who the fuck is this another Harry? Smells chink.

View attachment 66285

You can smell chinks? I think @Takodachi might have a job for you...
He honestly looks like an AI generated fusion of Yagoo and Riku lol.

 

[Todd's Strongest Howard]

Everyone does Even the filthy jews.

Phasefags should be wary of tribalists fleeing from Niji to their camp trying to back a new rival to Holo and starting shit. Any agency that can theoretically compete with Holo is gonna attract these grifters.

Who? Why?
Do these people even have ANY qualifications to mentor others in this industry?

Wow, I didn't know Gawl Gura and Pekora both came first and Hololive started solely to chase their shadow! Impressive research, really showing your industry know-how and the value of the information you have on hand.

Harry you retarded ni‎gger, learn how to lie before you start your grift. If you throw down a two pair and say "Go fish" during monopoly you're going to get laughed out of the dementia ward again.

Over 20? Fucking who? Where's the list? How can you be so sure of your success that you're leading with a first wave of over 20 and already preparing another similarly sized wave? This is a rich statement coming down the page from someone talking about how smaller ventures can't provide the level of support vtuber fans come to expect from new vtuber companies competing with the big corpos, because launching ~40+ talents in short order is definitely not going to have a good support structure at all.

 

[frz]

Who the fuck is this another Harry? Smells chink. Well, PteLtd indicate Singapore.

View attachment 66285

And WUT? 2nd wave? Excuse you? Where's the first one?

View attachment 66286

Why does this thing have every single trace of a scam. They just put every single failed idea the vtuber industry have into one and using trump speech.
Summary of their launch page:

1. Winning, every other agencies is inadequate so join us if you want to win in life
2. Alternative platform, If you join us you are now forbid to stream on youtube and twitch, just like how japan was successful with IRIAM. We are launching Anilive for you to stream on.
3. No breaks, our goal is to make you get used to streaming daily, from morning to night
4. Accomplished CEO, Our CEO is harry same as the very successful NijisanjiEN's head of branch
5. Accelerate, our first wave consist of 20 talents and our second wave will also be 20 talents. Planned to release at least 100 in the upcoming months.
6. Positive discrimination, we don't believe in equal opportunity, "we actively support those who demonstrate a high level of engagement and ambition"
7. Talent freedom, but not in the way you think, it just means you can do whatever you want, we will provide 0 guidance or support.
8. Tuition required, unlike JP VTA, US VTA operates on a revenue sharing model, same as any other corpos.
9. No salary, we invest initially and expecting to recoup it. "Individualized support for each person will be less", whatever this means.
10. we are "the anime" of vtubing ?????????
11. Envision, the top talents will be eventually gathered, graduate and ascended into our new agency. This new agency is at the envisioning phase, nothing concrete has been set up for it.

I am half convinced at this point it is a parody because there is no way something this bad can exist and that 20 people already signed up for it. Or that filian agrees to be associate with an obvious scam like this. Unless she is actually revealing herself to be a grifter also

 

[Superduper Samurai]

New En Vtuber company Nexas made a blog post explaining how they are a Virtual Talent Academia

What is “Virtual Talent Academia” ?

I’m Harry, the founder of NEXAS! Thank you for your interest in NEXAS’s first audition. Being our first audition, I was nervous

nexas.live

They literally have clique forming and inter-company rivalry as a feature and not a bug lmao

Spoiler

We envision an agency akin to a “prestigious university” like Harvard. Being part of such a community not only means meeting great peers and rivals but also gaining access to exclusive courses, internships, and study abroad opportunities. This model allows for customized lessons and support, enhancing individual and collective credibility through the brand. This is the agency model we, at forCreators, strive to realize.

and

Spoiler

Similarly, in NEXAS, we actively support those who demonstrate a high level of engagement and ambition. If you want to call it as “favoritism”, it might be true in a sense. But please understand that we will do it more systematically.

 

[Todd's Strongest Howard]

Why does this thing have every single trace of a scam. They just put every single failed idea the vtuber industry have into one and using trump speech.

1. Every other agencies is inadequate so join us if you want to "win"
2. If you join us you are now forbid to stream on youtube and twitch, just like how japan was successful with IRIAM. We are launching Anilive for you to stream on.
3. Our goal is to make you stream daily, from morning to night
4. Our CEO is harry same as the very successful NijisanjiEN's head of branch
5. Accelerate, our first wave consist of 20 talents and our second wave will also be 20 talents. Planned to release at least 100.
6. We dont believe in equal opportunity, better performing talents will get more support.
7. Actually does not promise 3d lives or any real support. Promise getting "lectures" from "top performing veteran" like filian.

I'm only halfway through reading this. But they are plowing through every scams in the industry. Will finish editing later. But I am half convinced at this point it is a parody because there is no way something this bad can exist and 20 people already signed up for it. Or that filian agrees to be associate with an obvious scam like this. Unless she is actually revealing herself to be a grifter

Don't forget the part where there is no unified company branding across the many talents, they may be under the one brand but they can dictate their own course of growth! Because nothing leads to success more than 43 directionless mid20s doing whatever the fuck they want on a streaming schedule that has them broadcasting from as little as a cell phone for hours a day, every single day.

And don't forget, it's not "favouritism", it's more systematic than that! We've definitely seen absolutely no divisive, company-negligible side effects from internal favouritism. Have we, Selen?

Whoops I forgot, Selen fucking died.

"We aim to create a community where the competitive environment transparently benefits those who excel."

Literally "We do more for you if you make us more money", a paragraph down from "Consider the analogy of universities or high schools; services aren’t equal for all. More diligent students often receive more attention and support from teachers, while those who neglect their studies and attendance might not graduate. While equal opportunities for learning are provided, leveraging them depends on the students’ initiative."

I wonder if they're going all in on the "student" angle and we'll hear how all the talents that made it in are also in debt several (tens of) thousands of dollars for various "fees". Also this motherfucker insists on using as much MHA imagery as possible, which really informs how absolutely fucking broke they really are to not have any money to get real art assets made for their page, while also probably trying to leverage the perceived popularity as being cool and draw people's attention with the favourable comparison.

"Recommending streaming 2 hours a day or more for 20 days" is a baseline requirement apparently, to 'ensure commitment'. What I think they mean is "We want you to produce fucktons of free, unpaid content for our shit platform so we're not written off as irrelevant and we can milk the fuck out of anyone that actually starts to succeed".

Spoiler: Some more fun things from the lead-in on their application page

No computer? No problem! Just stream from your phone and that's all you need to do to be a vtuber!



No hardware required! Only our app and your phone!



Ah yes, Prism Project. The Project that shut down recently. That Prism Project that was clearly successful and well managed. Clearly this is the kind of market leader to use as a representative of what you can expect.

What do you mean they shut down? Wait, wh-

"You have no say in the character, just have this model we probably bought for $40 and make it work."

Remember, they'll only support their top earners, so you better be ready to backbite as hard as possible at a moments notice because only so many people can actually succeed in their admitted business strategy of only helping breadwinners.

Translation: Inter-wave Crab Game, literally. This isn't a euphemism.

They'll give you comprehensive training, but don't worry, because it's entirely on you and your decision what direction you want to grow your own brand and how you want to make your impact in the industry! You're free to pursue your own interests but will have generic, blanket-factoid "training" that's somehow supposed to help!

By the way, feel free to expand your own brand to other platforms so long as you maintain a daily 2+ hour streaming pattern on our retard platform! Also be sure to tell us how you found success streaming as a vtuber on tiktok. Did I forget to mention elsewhere, they mentioned Instagram as a platform for vtuber content in the same breath as Youtube?



D-don't worry guys we definitely already have over 20 people ready for our first wave, we uh, just need another 3 or 4 months to get them all ready and to get the next 20 all prepared!



No hardware or experience necessary but you better be ready to just spew shit for more than 40 hours a month if you want any help at all. We all know how popular zatsudan streamers are so what if we just launch 40 fucking yappers all at once and give them all knives and tell them whoever is still standing when we turn the lights on gets $1000 per body?

What more needs to be said other than I'm going to apply. See ya chumps!

 

[Superduper Samurai]

The scam agency NEXAS has a youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/@NEXAS_official

Seems like very little is here besides some shorts for the algo, a promo video, and an announcement of their 2nd audition, and some Shorts, the narrator sounds ESL



In spite of their actual website that has some extremely wrong facts about vtubers, this short gets the absolute basic of Kizuna being one of the big ones and then the agencies pop up, with a funny cameo by Natsumi Moe by the end
The rest of the shorts seem really shit, but i did see a couple clips from Rin Penrose and Pippa's 3D AR stream in them

 

[superduper]

This all sounds very suspect to me.

 

[Fauna's Deadest Sapling]

Harry sees Nijisanji on fire, stock price falling, talents trying to jump ship. "Yes, that's the company we want to emulate," Harry says, while writing up his Vtuber 101 course.

I mean, if the stonks crash again & Nijisanji are forced to shutter EN & possibly everything, maybe Harry'll be well positioned to fill the "Absolute Dumpster Fire" segment of the vtubing market.

 

[NeneHATE]

Was reading their website, this shit reminds me of the global vtuber awards tbh. A bunch of ultra-idealistic nonsense talk, sniffing their own farts and just generally talking like they own the industry despite having less than 0 presence in it.

 

[Seth]

The official account is followed by Yagoo himself.



The CEO being japanese himself.

Wait, the CEO is called Harry, is it the same harry that worked for hololive?

x.com

x.com

 

[RiverBear]

Honestly, more power to them - more competition is always goo

But consider that Twitch literally just dropped support to Korea because they operate at a loss, I don't see how a small indie group is supposed to rival that.

 

[NeneHATE]

The scam agency NEXAS has a youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/@NEXAS_official

Seems like very little is here besides some shorts for the algo, a promo video, and an announcement of their 2nd audition, and some Shorts, the narrator sounds ESL



In spite of their actual website that has some extremely wrong facts about vtubers, this short gets the absolute basic of Kizuna being one of the big ones and then the agencies pop up, with a funny cameo by Natsumi Moe by the end
The rest of the shorts seem really shit, but i did see a couple clips from Rin Penrose and Pippa's 3D AR stream in them

His "Vtuber (((history)))" is like saying "There were the romans and then ww2 happened and the UN was formed," What the actual fuck. I like how the main emphasis of the video is MONEY, you know exactly what these fags are after.

Wait these motherfuckers got funded?! Holy shit do people with money love to burn it pointlessly...

NEXAS

A unique virtual talent academia committed to expanding creator potential and elevating Vtubing as a respected profession. Join a community that fosters talent and redefines entertainment.

nexas.live

 

[Todd's Strongest Howard]

Spoiler: Snaps of the last page of NEXAS' audition form, where the personal questions start.

My favourite part of the application process, when I have to give a psychoanalysis of myself and then vouch for my own assessment with unverified hearsay from third parties.



The most incorrect part of this segment is a third gender option being "Prefer not to say". In my experience, anyone that doesn't identify as male or female will absolutely take all opportunities to tell you so.



They don't restrict you from applying if you are a current talent elsewhere, but it is stipulated that if so you must be ready to immediately break off your contract with that company if you're accepted, which, lmao. Imagine being someone with another corpo spot and you apply here, get in and have to terminate yourself just to get fucked over by the kill or be killed battle royale of vtubing.



I really had a laugh when I saw they're asking for Discord ID and that they will use that to contact you, or email. Everyone knows real professional companies use slack anyway!



Sorry chief I don't speak english.



I wonder what their reaction would be if I enter "The Virtual Asylum".



Hmm, no I think I lied about the part where I put my personality traits, if only because I don't think it'd be beneficial to list my strongest personality trait as "willing to backstab as hard as possible for fun, profit not necessary".

Also their privacy policy linked in the form.

 

[The Proctor]

Should I apply?

 

[thhrang]

Should I apply?

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[NeneHATE]

What could possibly go wrong?

JANNIE SWEEP ALL OF THE POSTS FROM GENERAL ONTO THIS THREAD!

The official account is followed by Yagoo himself.

View attachment 66311

The CEO being japanese himself.

Wait, the CEO is called Harry, is it the same harry that worked for hololive?

x.com

x.com

Also hexa, and katta? Wtf is this?
Harry worked for Niji, not Holo.

 

[Todd's Strongest Howard]

Should I apply?

You no longer have a choice because I may have submit an application using your youtube channel, twitter and discord ID in the relevant fields.

Good luck Proctor! I didn't actually but holy fuck wouldn't it be funny?

On the other hand, imagine the viewcount when it goes up in flames and you have a post-flameout news stream about it with an insider point of view! Fresh milk straight from the source!